


Infernal Legacies

by inheritanceofgeek



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Campaign 2, F/M, M/M, Multi, Sorry Not Sorry, spoilers for episode 25, waking up alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 20:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15251280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inheritanceofgeek/pseuds/inheritanceofgeek
Summary: Mollymauk wakes up the night after they've said goodbye to Kiri to find the tent empty. At first he thinks that Jester and Fjord have just gone off to have some fun without him, but it soon transpires that all is not as it seems....





	Infernal Legacies

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! Those last 15 minutes of episode 25 were pretty intense, right? I've had this hovering around in my head for the past week, and decided that I'd quickly put it into words before the episode actually aired and it all became obsolete. 
> 
> Sometimes I make myself sad, and I need to make others sad too.

Molly stretched his limbs, twisting over groggily and flicking his tail lazily. It’d been a long, emotional day and that had meant that Jester had wanted lots of cuddles which was something Molly was only happy to give! Especially with Fjord bracketing them. This was the best part of joining the Nein, the affection and emotional safety he’d found with these two people. He’d just been looking for a home after the circus, but he'd somehow found something he might one day call love. It was too soon for that though, for now he was happy to enjoy the small moments of waking up and seeing the face of someone beautiful looking back at you. He flipped his tail back to tickle Jester with it, so he could hear her delightful giggles and have her 'snuggle attack’ him from behind. Jester made the perfect little spoon, no question about it, but she also gave some of the best hugs, and Molly was not above denying himself the exquisite things in life. But as he flicked his tail back, there was nothing there…. He frowned, reaching back blindly and searching for a thick thigh or a tangle of hair, but found nothing but a cold bed roll. 

That was very odd. They were meant to be on the next guard duty together. She’d not have gone off without him, surely? As his thoughts began to solidify, he noticed that Fjord was missing too. He was meant to wake them both up at the end of his shift, so why hadn’t he? It then hit Molly like a bucket of cold piss. The pair had thrown away their responsibilities and snuck off together to have some fun! Without him! Beau was probably covering for them, any excuse to sit near Yasha. This was so completely impolite of them. It wasn’t that he objected to their running off to have a little fun together, there were some things it was just easier to do with just two people, but he’d have liked to have been invited at least! He was more than content to just watch, after all. 

He let out another low groan, and finally pulled himself up and got ready grabbing his stuff. Jester’s haversack and weapons were still here, so they couldn’t have gotten very far. Probably hiding round the back of the tent. He flipped open the entrance and was caught by some surprise. He was due to take the late night watch, it took it as his chance to commune with the moonweaver, since she was always clearest then. Yet the sky was already starting to turn lighter, the grey morning fog already clouding in around them. Strange. 

In the middle of the field there was Beau, those dorky goggles making her eyes look twice their usual size. She was spinning about, looking for something. 

“What’re ya after there Beau? Looking for ya marbles? Wouldn’t be much luck in finding them I don’t think.” 

“Fuck you Molly.” called back Beau, turning to glare at him “I’m looking for Yasha. She didn’t come back to the tent last night after her watch.” 

“Keeping an eye out, were ya?” he grinned, showing each and every one of his teeth “She’s probably just done a Yasha, you’ll have to get used to that if you’re gonna keep making a fool of yourself around her.” 

“If she’s just ‘done a Yasha’, then why” she said, raising something up in her hand “did she leave this behind?” she chucked it and Molly caught it protectively. He glared at Beau, holding it tightly to his chest before carefully examining it. It was a leather bound book, thick with things that had been put in carefully. He flipped through the pages, trying to prove to himself that this wasn't Yasha’s… but there was no denying it. Each page bought a new thread of panic within him, there was the lucky clover he’d found for her in the fields near Pearlbow, the daisies from Mittwoch, even the snowdrops from that ill advised trip to Whitestone. There was no way she’d leave without this, he knew that she was trying to fill it with her adventures, and she loved showing him the new flowers she’d found when she’d come back. She’d told him it was part of the reason she always came home, so she could show tell him all about what she'd found. What was she going to use to keep them in now…

“Where are Fjord and Jester anyway?” Asked Beau cutting into his thoughts “Jester was meant to wake me up after your watch. Go wake Fjord up so we can--” 

Molly felt his heart begin to sink in fear, a chill was settling into his body and the red eyes on his skin began to itch. Something was wrong here, something was very deeply wrong. He didn’t bother replying to Beau, expertly ignoring her eye roll and stormed straight towards Caleb and Nott’s tent. He didn’t even bother calling out as he flung back the canvass door and to glare at them. There was Nott, tucked up on a circle at the end of the bed roll, whilst Caleb lay out flat on his back with Frumpkin sitting on his face… and no Fjord or Jester. He’d not expected them to be in there but maybe…. 

“Oi! Smartypants, get up.” he picked up a boot and threw it at them, hitting Nott on the head. She and Frumpkin both rose up simultaneously to hiss at him. Caleb himself was much slower to move, but he was at least awake “The others are missing. Get up, and get searching.”

They began to search the whole site. They’d tried sending out a message but nobody had replied. Molly was starting to go into a panic, and that was never a good sign. He’d learned to trust his instincts, since he's no life experience to guide him otherwise, and they’d not yet steered him truly wrong. This wasn’t a prank, this wasn’t innocent foolish fun, this was dark. He couldn’t focus correctly. Everything around them just looked like grass! There was no sign of a struggle, no footprints no… gods what had happened to them? What was going on, what had--

“Over here! I’ve found something!” cried Beau, holding up a strip of ribbon, “I think it’s Jes-” 

“I know it’s Jester’s!” snapped Molly, storming forward to snatch it out of Beau’s grasp. Jester usually had the ribbons them tied around her horns, but at night she tied them to her wrists so as not to lose them, or just in case she needed something to hold her hair back, or in case they wanted to do anything a little more interesting. They were still trying to persuade Fjord of that, he’d turn a deep viridian at the thought and… and what did this mean? 

They called Nott and Caleb over and began searching the location more thoroughly. There were more signs of a struggle now, sets of footprints that were too small to be Yasha or Fjord’s, but too big to be Jester’s. But it had been a dry night and there was nothing else they could tell, no idea of if it was just one person or a whole team or.... 

Then Molly found the splash of blood against the grass. It was already starting to dry, a few insects landing in it and snuffling around for nutrients. That cold dread began to fill him up again. 

“It doesn’t have to be theirs…” said Beau, in the softest voice he’d heard from her yet. For once he didn’t bother to argue, she was right. It would be unlikely that they’d not put up a fight, and Fjord and Yasha would have had their swords with them… and Jester may have still had a spell or two left in her if… oh if, if, if, if…  
“Isn’t there some sort of spell you can do to find know where they are!” he snapped at Caleb, searching for an answer in his face. “You’ve got so many secrets in those books of yours, surely some of them can come in useful. It can’t all just be cats and fire.” 

“Now Molly,” began Nott, putting her hands on her hips “that’s no way to speak to Caleb! I know you’re worried but we really need to--”

“Well there’s gotta be SOMETHING yous can do! Can’t you try and focus on something they own, or magically spy on them or send a long distance message! ANYTHING!” 

Caleb blinked at him slowly, and began to carefully thumb through his spell book “I’ve certainly got a spell like the one Jester uses, but it’s not one I am familiar with, I would have to, ah, I’d have to sit and learn it. But I could, ja I--”

“What do you mean, you need to learn it! Jester can just do it! Do it now before it’s too late!” 

“Molly, I know you’re worried but please, you need to calm down.”

“Yeah, let’s get something to eat and then we can make a proper plan and calm down. There’s no use--”

“Calm down!” shrieked Molly, his voice taking on a darker tone as he felt the heat of hells rise in him “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down, Caleb, you’re the one whose always setting things on fire, and wanting to turn back on the group! You’re just doing it again, aren’t ya? You don’t even want to find them, do ye? They’re just yet more collateral damage for ye,” 

They all seemed to physically wince from his words, but Molly didn’t care. He was angry, and he didn’t even care to keep it in check anymore. Beau was about to say something reasonable but Molly ignored her, his rage still focussed on Caleb because he needed to put it somewhere. 

The man just stayed his ground though, unflinching. “Mollymauk, I am sorry, but right now, there is nothing that I am able to do for them.”

“Then what, prey tell” snarled Molly, stepping further into his face, he could feel it now, his voice huskier with rage in the way that took him sometimes. His infernal side was barely being kept in check, “Is even the point of you being here?” 

Molly didn’t even look back when Beau called his name, or when Nott tried to pull him back with her hands, yelling at him in for daring to insult her precious boy. They didn’t understand. They’d had fucked up childhoods, all of them. No one with a healthy family background ever became a mercenary. But Molly didn’t have enough memories left in him to have a fucked up childhood. He just had his current situation and he wasn’t going to let his best friend and his lovers become his tragic backstory. They deserved so much more than that. He could feel the tears begin to fall free now, trailing down his face, his blood was so close to boiling point…. 

He knew that the others were right, he knew that at this point they’d just need to sit and wait for Caleb to learn his damn spell and then maybe they’d learn something proper. But Molly couldn’t bring himself to apologise for anything just yet, he'd only been truly alive for two years, and he'd already lost everything he’d ever cared about. He’d had people he trusted turn around and literally stab him in the back, he’d had to see people he cared for thrown into prison, and then disappear almost completely. He looked to the morning light and searched desperately for the fading face of the moonweaver. 

“I know you’re usually one to cast shadows over lovers, but maybe this time you could shed a light on them? You told me on that day to go out and forge new experiences in life, but I don’t wanna make any if I can’t share it with them…”

The grey of dawn finally gave into a clear blue sky, and the night had finally ended. There was nothing left to do but hope for the best outcome, there might not seem like a lot to go on right now, but at the end of the day, hope was the thing with a giant fuck off sword.

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoyed this? Let me know via Kudos/Comments or in Tumblr where I'm Mrsmarymorstan =)


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